The next morning, Sophia visited Lud and the others at their lodging, where they had greeted the morning without much rest. Sophia said she needed to talk and they suggested doing so at the breakfast table while eating, but she refused the offer. Instead, Sophia hung her head low and made a fist.
“I’m sorry.”
Her voice was full of frustration and regret.
“Sophia, what happened?”
Sophia replied to Lud’s question by telling him the Security Department was planning to test a ballistic missile and had abducted Meitzer. She added that the regular military was sending a special combat unit to stop the test and retrieve Meitzer. Furthermore...
“I also asked permission for you to come, but I was refused.” Sophia spoke in a strained voice and looked tense and unhappy.
She had asked Toolman, the captain of the special combat team, for Lud and Sven to join the operation. However, his answer had been extremely cold.
“There’s no way I can allow that.” Toolman had curtly cut her off in a tone that allowed no argument and was inappropriate toward a superior officer. “I know Langart, and I know he’s a capable man. However, he has quit the military.”
Some retired members of the military remain on reserve for emergency musters. Lud, however, was not in the reserves.
“This mission requires the utmost secrecy. We don’t know who Langart has come into contact with since leaving the military, and we haven’t examined his current situation. We cannot trust him.”
Sophia couldn’t say, “Do you doubt my subordinate?!”
Toolman was correct. To press further would be to involve personal matters. A fundamental tenet for the success of an operation was removing even the slightest worrisome element. Toolman wasn’t wrong.
“I hear Langart is living in a rural area as a baker now. If you care about him, shouldn’t you let him lead his peaceful life? Or... is there some reason he should come with us?”
Sophia couldn’t answer that question. Meitzer claimed to be Sven’s father. However, Sven was officially a weapon that had escaped from a military research facility. That was as big a problem as Verne 1.
“I see. Understood. I apologize. Forget I mentioned it.”
Sophia was unable to press the matter any further.
“I’m sorry, Lud. I wanted to take you with us, but...”
Sophia was frustrated because she had been useless to her former junior officer and old friend. That wasn’t all. She and Sven had often tussled, but Sophia didn’t dislike the girl. On the contrary, she respected Sven for standing up to her and even came close to trusting her to make Lud happy. She felt worthless because of her inability to satisfy their expectations.
“Pay it no mind, Major Rundstadt.”
However, Sven expressed consideration for how Sophia felt.
“Major, it’s understandable a logical opponent would verbally win against a hothead like you.”
“Who’s a hothead?!”
“Heh heh heh...”
“Urgh!”
Sophia had been looking down forlornly, but now she looked up.
“It can’t be helped, Sophia. I used to be in the military too, so I understand.”
“I’m sorry...”
Now she was open to Lud’s consoling words.
“Can you tell us who the enemy is and where they’re holding Meitzer?”
“Erm... those are military secrets.”
Sophia couldn’t tell any civilian about a problem tightly bound to a political affair.
“This is hardly compensation, but trust me. I won’t fail to rescue Meitzer and arrange a meeting with you.” Sophia ensured Lud and the others she would do everything she could. “Hmm... It’s time. Sorry, but now I must hurry.”
Out front, the horn sounded from the vehicle waiting for Sophia. There wasn’t much time before the operation would begin. She had come to apologize to Lud and Sven in the little time that remained.
“Good luck with the mission.” Sven saw Sophia off with those words. “I guess we just have to wait.”
After Sophia left, Sven and Lud thought again about what to do next. There was nothing Lud’s group could do now. He had left the military and hoped to live a new life, so it was ironic that his choice should lead to limitations such as this.
“Hm?”
There was a knock on the door. They thought perhaps Sophia had forgotten something, but it was Rebecca who came in.
“Oh, the red girl. What’s up?”
“Stop calling me that, Svelgen.”
Lud and Sven assumed she came with a message, and indeed she tersely delivered one.
“The director wants to see you. Come to the development bureau right away.”
“Has something happened?”
“I can’t tell you. Actually... I don’t know myself.”
If she merely needed to summon them, a phone call would have sufficed. While phones had yet to spread throughout Wiltia, each district in Berun had a few installations. It was much faster than dispatching messengers.
“I see...”
This situation required summoning them in a way that could not be wiretapped.
“Understood. We’ll go at once.”
Staying at their lodging wasn’t accomplishing anything. They prepared to depart and set out with Rebecca for the Royal Weapons Development Bureau in the northeast area of the royal capital.
Led by Rebecca, they arrived at the development bureau one hour later. This was where Sven was “born.” However, the place had troubling associations for Lud.
“This way, please.”
When it came to military secrets, this facility contained more than a few. Nonetheless, the two were able to enter with the most perfunctory of procedures, without even a body search.
“Isn’t security a bit lax?” Sven muttered without thinking.
“Don’t misunderstand, Svelgen. It’s because you’re with me—and because Major Rundstadt isn’t present.”
“Oh, right. She’s in charge of security here.”
Sophia was called the Devil’s Black Spear, but she was also known as the Dragon Slayer. She had earned that name with her fierce glare. No enemy escaped her gaze and she possessed impressive defensive skills.
“If the major had been here, even you would not have been able to enter the area housing the director’s office without going through the regular procedures.”
Now they understood why Rebecca came to get them immediately after Sophia’s departure. When Daian learned that Sophia was leaving the royal capital on the mission, he hurriedly summoned Sven and the others “while the demon was gone.”
“That’s the Sorcerer for you. No one can beat him when it comes to sneaky methods.”
Sophia usually had Daian under her thumb, but he held onto control where he could.
“Svelgen, you mustn’t talk like that in front of the director.”
“Yes. Of course.”
Daian was one of the most important people in the nation. The military treated him as it would a colonel.
“He’d be happy to hear such things.”
“Is that how you see it?!”
However, he was also a twisted individual and a real pain in the butt.
“This way. Director, we’re coming in.”
They had walked deep within the development bureau and finally entered Daian’s office.
“Sorry for calling you here. Langart... and Sven. I suppose this is a homecoming for you.”
“It doesn’t really feel like it.” Sven shrugged at Daian’s glib chatter.
“Yes, I suppose it’s more like a maternity ward for you.”
Sven just thought of it as the place where she was born.
“For Langart, however, that isn’t true.”
“You know?”
“People everywhere owe me something. In return, information reaches my ears.”
A “friend” of Lud’s had once died here beneath the Weapons Development Bureau. The man’s name was Genitz. He had been both friend and foe to Lud.
“Director, did you call Master here so you could needle him about the past?”
“Certainly not. However, I too am human, so I remember whether I want to or not.”
“What do you mean?”
Sven admonished Daian for bringing up a matter that was so sensitive for her master, but she did not understand the importance of his words.
“I’ve got some info. I know where Meitzer is. However, the situation is extremely tricky.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s a tale that will make you dizzy.”